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<title>(once like a spark) by telluric_cry (perihadion)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23808265">(once like a spark)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/perihadion/pseuds/telluric_cry'>telluric_cry (perihadion)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>(and live by love though the stars walk backwards) [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Light Angst, Love Confessions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:15:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23808265</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/perihadion/pseuds/telluric_cry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place after the ending of the remake, in Cosmo Canyon. Cloud finds Aerith alone by the bonfire.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>(and live by love though the stars walk backwards) [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Umbrella &amp; Nailbat | Member Stories</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>(once like a spark)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>you just can’t wait for the right time because like comets</em><br/>
<em>it could be the last time</em><br/>
<em>you should always tell them you love them</em><br/>
<em>in case you never see them again</em><br/>
— “Comets”, Piano Magic
</p><hr/><p>When Cloud awoke it was the deepest part of the night. The world seemed sharp and spectral at the same time. For the first time since they had left Midgar he felt just how quiet the world could be — and, under the stillness of Cosmo Canyon at night, he sensed something else, both unfamiliar and yet something his heart recognised at the same time: the fundamental vibration of the planet?</p><p>He crept out of the inn, into the cool night air. The bonfire at the heart of the canyon burned day and night. Cloud had carried a fear of fire with him since his home was razed to the ground but there was something about the diffuse glow of the Cosmo Candle and the shadows it sent dancing up the rust-coloured rock which set him at peace.</p><p>There was a figure by the flame, cast in shadow against its light. He could make out no features from this angle but he knew who it was.</p><p>Aerith turned to look at him as he approached. “Mind if I join you?” he said. She shook her head and he sat a little apart from her. He looked sidelong at her, wondering if she would scoot closer to him as she had in the playground, but she just looked back into the fire.</p><p>He meant to look away but he felt mesmerised by the way the light played on her face and danced over her hair. He wondered if this was a dream.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she said after a little while. “I know I’ve been distracted.”</p><p>He found that this time he was the one shifting to get closer to her. She turned to look up at him. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, and the ghost of a smile crossed her face.</p><p>“Thank you, Cloud,” she said, turning back to the fire.</p><p>They sat like that for some time, watching the flames dance, the crackling of the fire and gentle thrumming of the planet the only sounds. Cloud felt something stirring inside himself, something he had to tell her. He took a deep breath.</p><p>“You were wrong, you know,” he said. She turned to look at him again in — surprise? No, she knew. The fire crackled. “When you said it wasn’t real,” he said, explaining himself anyway.</p><p>She turned back to the fire, which cast red and gold sparks into the darkness like stars which lived an eternity in just a moment. “I know,” she said, and then added, softly, “for me, too.”</p><p>Cloud felt his heart clench in his chest.</p><p>This thing between them was something more than words. It was something unspoken, that did not need to be spoken. They both just knew. It hung between them all the time. But to hear even a half-confession made him feel like a great wave had crashed over him and knocked all the air out of him</p><p>He felt her body tilt towards him and the gentle contact of her against his side. Not a dream. He turned his head towards her.</p><p>“Do you ever wonder,” he said, “what it might be like if we had met under different circumstances?”</p><p>Her head was falling onto his shoulder now. He closed his eyes. Her hair smelled like wildflowers and cinders.</p><p>“You mean if I had just been a florist and you had just been a mercenary and we hadn’t been swept up in all this?” he heard her say.</p><p>He nodded.</p><p>He had wondered more than once — when she caught his eye across the room and winked at him, when they laughed together, when people commented on what a cute couple they made — if they would have dated, grown together, opened each other up, if there was a version of a life where they were content.</p><p>“No,” she said. He turned to look at her in surprise. “If things had been different we would have been different. I don’t know if those other people would have fallen in love. And it doesn’t matter.”</p><p>Love.</p><p>His heart was pounding.</p><p>“I just wish —” he couldn’t articulate it.</p><p>“Cloud,” she said, placing her hand on his arm. “Things are the way they are. There’s no changing the past.”</p><p>“Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?” he said.</p><p>“I guess,” she said. “But what I mean is —”</p><p>“That we have to make the most of every moment,” he said.</p><p>He looked down at her and she tilted her face up to meet his gaze. Her face seemed to glow in the shifting light from the fire. Her eyes were so green. He felt as if he were wandering in some secret forest. He started to lean forward to kiss her but stopped himself and turned his face away again.</p><p>“Sorry,” he said.</p><p>She was trembling next to him. He thought she might be crying but when he glanced sidelong he saw that her hands were pressed to her mouth and that she was laughing. He sighed: a sharp exhale which did nothing to relieve his frustration. She got to her knees and leaned around him to peer into his face which he turned away from her — but she placed a hand to his jaw and turned his face to look at her. His mouth fell open as she ran her thumb over his lower lip. She smiled that familiar mocking smile at the expression of confused vulnerability on his face. Then she kissed him, so lightly at first it was as though a petal had brushed over his lips. He caught her in his arms and, eyes closed, kissed her back hard. He felt all the hidden love, the fear, the sadness crash over him as he tilted her head to deepen the kiss — thinking that maybe he could tell her all the things he was unable to say like this.</p><p>She slid into his lap, breaking the kiss to look down at his face. From this angle she seemed to take up the whole night sky, sparks from the fire dancing around her like stars and comets. He wanted nothing more than to tip her onto her back and press kisses to every part of her. She brushed his hair back from his face. Her eyes were shining, as if she too had so many things to tell him but no words to say them.</p><p>He wished that he could stay here in this moment with her for the rest of time. Maybe she was right: if things had been different they may never even have met, may never have felt like this about each other — and he never would have had this moment with her.</p><p>And it was worth it.</p><p>Whatever heartache and suffering it caused, whatever pain and confusion — however short their time together, however it ended — it was worth it. He would never change it, not a moment of it. Not a moment.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Come say hi on <a href="http://twitter.com/theoceanblooms">twitter</a> or <a href="http://spectroscopes.tumblr.com">tumblr</a>! If you really liked this fic, it would be lovely if you could <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/616216382180409344/NIJOgrev/">reblog</a> on tumblr.</p><p>Also, please check out <a href="https://discord.gg/3PdRDER">the Cloud/Aerith discord server</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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